Netnography: a research method in internet

Abstract

Netnography is presented as a new research method to investigate about what is happening in virtual communities, more concretely what happens in Internet. The method derives from the application of the ethnography to the study of the cyberspace. Its pretension is to become a science of what goes on the the net of networks; such pretension, regarded as necessary by any emergent discipline, is still diffuse. It is mostly presented as a research technique of the experiences in the virtual spaces. Its origins are situated in the United States. Its present and more evident application is expressed by the marketing, in market studies. It considers certain phases, and gather the artificial, what is provided by the computers with the natural work, of human beings, in order to determine the most appropriate decisions to optimally offer the consumption of a product or service.